Stamp Act Congress

The Stamp Act Congress, also known as the Continental Congress of 1765, was a meeting held in New York City in the colonial Province of New York. It included representatives from most of the British colonies in North America, which sought a unified strategy against newly imposed taxes by the British Parliament, particularly the Stamp Act 1765 that required the use of specialty stamped British paper - for all legal documents, newspapers, almanacks, and calendars, and even playing cards and dice - and thus would have an impact on practically all business in the colonies, coming to force on November 1, 1765. It was the second such gathering of elected colonial representatives after the Albany Convention of 1754 at the outbreak of the French and Indian War. Massive debts from that war, which ended in 1763, prompted the British Parliament to implement measures to raise revenues from the colonies. Resistance against the Stamp Tax came especially from lawyers and businessmen, but was broadly protested by ordinary colonial residents.